Factors influencing the transparency experience of Scrum team members

Abstract

This work investigates the factors that have an influence on a Scrum team member’s transparency experience. This is relevant for the subsequent determination of the per-son’s behavior, which is of interest to the organizations to support them in achieving their goals. Even more so in Scrum teams, where transparency is one of the main principles. Including the data collected from semi-structured interviews, this study identifies 8 factors that are relevant to Scrum team members’ transparency experi-ence. The identified factors are the following: team structure, team processes, em-powerment, strategy organization, team values, team environment, Scrum Master, and personal features. To interpret them, these factors are classified into two groups, depending on their relationship with transparency in Scrum teams. One group in-cludes the factors exogenous to transparency, and the other group comprises the factors endogenous to it. Both mediate the transparency experience of Scrum team members and finally impact transparency itself. The findings also highlight the signif-icance of the socio-psychological dimension in the Scrum framework, which should therefore be considered, especially from the managerial point of view. Overall, once the relationship between transparency and its experience is better understood in the Scrum context, Scrum team leaders can better manage the team members.